[cl8baller]

Hi folks,

Current I am searching for a new laptop, unfortunately there are so many things out there on the market I am uninformed on and so much information out there that every time I start to look at specifications, form factors,processors, video cards, weight, battery life, USB ports, and various other things, it is almost terrifying to look around.

Right now I am using an HP 530 with roughly around 150GB of hard drive space, with what appears to be a Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, and 2GB RAM. It runs on Windows Vista Business, with Ubuntu on the side which I occasional use. I have replaced the fan, screen, keyboard, battery, a ribbon cable, and fan, at least once while adding an additional RAM chip making it 2GB RAM. Applications I use frequently are Chrome, Microsoft Office Suite Student and Home 2007, Winamp; devices I use with my laptop are various BlackBerry phones, a BlackBerry PlayBook, an USB DAC, various MP3 players, and an extended monitor. If you could only imagine, my laptop is asking to be put out of its misery.

I like to consider myself the casual power-user, the ones that need power frequently but are far from some hardcore gamers, those that enjoy having a number of applications-with many tabs opens on browsers-with the ability to seamlessly switch from one application to another via shortcut keys. Listed below are some things I feel I need and are listed as bullets to make them easy to point out. What I feel I need is something with:

Enough battery power.
A medium-large screen
Enough power to handle both work and play-sometimes at the same time.
At least 500GB hard drive, would be nice but I could settle for no less than 200GB.
A decent sound card so I do not always have to use a USB DAC when I am on-the-go,
Something versatile, durable, ergonomically friendly, and could last at least 5 years with upgrades and well price replacement parts.
An internal optical drive-maybe, maybe not
Around less than 2kg (4.5lbs).
At least 2 USB ports.
An HDMI or DVI output
Something within a budget of no more than $550 before tax.

Maybe I am asking for too much especially with the price point, maybe I am asking for too little, although I can hardly believe that. The operating system is not too important to me; if its runs Windows, I would probably dual-boot some variation of Ubuntu; if it runs OS X, I would probably dual-boot Windows or Ubuntu, maybe even all three for the fun of it.

Ideas anyone? Perhaps questions you could probably ask that would allow me to narrow down what I truly want and need? Go for it.

[Rootbrian]

Well, firstly, processor speeds are going to be slower as what the market sees is, more cores, less speed. I hate it. I haven't let go of my 12 year old desktop yet because of the speeds not being like they should be right now: 6 GHz or more, with two cores at least.If the battery is going on your current laptop, there should be replacements on ebay. That is the first thing I would check for before making a big purchase, especially for a laptop or camcorder.First priorties: Speed, Battery replacements, hard drive replacements. If yours is SATA, you can upgrade the drive. If the speed is higher than 2.4 GHz, then it'll still be faster than the current market, as with mine, being 3.06 GHz. Operating system wise: Ubuntu has LibreOffice, empathy (multiprotocol instant messaging), an e-mail client and a media player built right in. That libre office suite can effectively replace microsoft office, for free and saves in those same formats.Edit: in regards to sound, there isn't much you can do but use usb powered external speakers maybe. Most sound cards aren't the best in every single laptop, and making a sacrifise isn't the best. Blackberry management: there's linberry. Works on Linux quite well, though I haven't tried it yet, crackberry did do a review on it.